DOCUMENT: THE MACHINE  //  STATUS: DECLASSIFIED

The Machine

We use it on purpose. Here's exactly how it works.

Every "privacy-first" brand on earth tells you they don't track you. Most of them are counting on you not to read the fine print.

We're going to do something different. We're going to hand you the blueprints — to the machine we're using — and show you how it works from the inside. Lights on. No PR.

First, the honest part

We use these tools on purpose.

We could play purist and switch everything off. We don't. Because the entire point of this operation is to get the message to as many people as possible. Refusing to use the system's roads wouldn't make us noble. It would just mean fewer people ever hear us. That's not principle. That's losing on purpose.

We use the system's roads to move the resistance.
What we won't do is pretend the roads aren't watching.

Exhibit 0 — The Free Sample

Before a single pixel fires, here's what any website on earth can see the moment you arrive. Watch:

INTERCEPT — LIVE
BROWSER
—
SYSTEM
—
SCREEN
—
TIMEZONE
—
LANGUAGE
—
YOU CAME FROM
—
GPC SIGNAL
—
YOUR IP
Known to every server you touch — including ours, in the connection logs. But this panel can't show it without sending you to a third party to fetch it. We don't do that. Notice how every other site that shows you your IP just did.

Everything above: computed on your device. Transmitted nowhere. That's the point — and that's the difference between showing you the machine and being one.

What's actually watching you

Exhibit A — The Pixel
Tiny invisible code from Meta, TikTok, Google. You never see it. When you land, click, add to cart, or buy, it reports back — and quietly builds a profile of you for the ad machine.
Exhibit B — GA4 (Google Analytics)
Watches how you move through a site. Where you came from, what you clicked, where you bailed. Multiply that across millions of sites and you get Google's behavioral map of you.
Exhibit C — Retargeting
The reason the thing you looked at once follows you everywhere. You got logged, dropped into an "audience," and now the system pays to chase you until you cave or forget. Not a coincidence. The whole design.
Exhibit D — CAPI (Conversions API)
The sneaky one most people never hear about. When you started blocking cookies, they built a workaround: instead of tracking you through your browser where you can block it, they send your data server-to-server — specifically to get around the privacy controls you thought were protecting you. There is a tool whose entire job is to defeat your privacy settings. That's not paranoia. That's the published feature description.

Currently running on this site

Shopify's core platform analytics (see the true story below for how optional those are). Nothing else — yet. When the pixels go in, this list changes the same day, and we'll say so.

Last verified: July 17, 2026

The part where we tried to turn it off (a true story)

  1. The off-switch didn't work. We clicked "Disable." Dead button. Nothing. We had to switch to an entirely different browser before it would even register the click.
  2. They made us type "UNINSTALL." In all caps, into a box — the same ritual you go through to delete your entire account — just to stop them feeding your data into their network.
  3. Then came the threats. Turn it off, they warned, and we'd lose checkout conversion, our automations would stop, our brand settings would be erased. A punishment list for the crime of protecting our customers.

We're telling you this because they never would.

So here's our deal with you

  • We use ad and analytics tools because reach matters. We're not going to pretend otherwise.
  • We will never sell your personal data.
  • We will always tell you what's running.
  • And we'll show you how to protect yourself — even from us.

How to shield yourself (works on any site, not just ours)

  • Turn on Global Privacy Control (GPC) in your browser — an automatic "don't sell or share my data" signal many sites must honor. (Check Exhibit 0 above — yours is either on or it isn't.)
  • Use Firefox, Brave, or uBlock Origin — they block most pixels before they fire.
  • Clear cookies regularly — it breaks the trail. Though, see Exhibit D: not a complete shield anymore, and we'd rather you know that than feel falsely safe.
  • Check the privacy page before you buy — if a store doesn't have one, that tells you something. Ours is here.

The bottom line

We use the enemy's roads to get the message out. We'll tell you exactly where the cameras are, who owns them, why we drive these roads anyway, and how to cover your own face if you want to.

That's the difference between us and them.

They hope you never read this page.
We hope you read it twice.